An organic polymer that helps bacteria ingest landfill plastics, leaving behind only “microbe poop”

11 Jun 2019 --- Canadian company Breakdown Plastic has commercialized an organic polymer – BDP – that helps plastic naturally decompose, meaning that the barrage of plastic that ends up in landfill or anaerobic digesters could biodegrade within a matter of years as opposed to centuries. It is estimated that 80 percent of all plastic ever produced is currently festering in a landfill, and this is expected to grow to even more alarming rates as the global population continues to increase. This has spurred the search for not only alternative, sustainable packaging materials to plastic, but also technological advances that can solve the issue on a molecular level.

Speaking to PackagingInsights, Ryan Jesse, CEO of Breakdown Plastics, explains that he came across the organic polymer technology on his search for eco-friendly packaging options and offered to rebrand it under Breakdown Plastic. BDP can be added to plastics during the manufacturing process in the form of pellets and powder. BDP does not affect recycling, is suitable for use in rPET applications and can be used in various applications from packaging, toys, clothing, bedding, furniture and plant-based plastics.

The process by which BDP enhances biodegradtion means that no harmful residue is left in the environment. “BDP causes an enzymatic reaction that allows microbes to see it as a food source and consume it. When microbes consume something, they only leave behind ‘microbe poop,’ which is just compost and biogas, and are the same byproducts as organic materials biodegrading,” Jesse explains. It is estimated that 80 percent of all plastic ever produced is currently festering in a landfill.

This is an advantage that Breakdown Plastic’s technology has over other various plastic alternative materials, such as PLA and compostable plastic, according to Jesse. These materials are often not accepted for recycling, and when they are accidentally recycled with oil-based plastics such as PET, they may ruin entire batches of recyclable plastics.

“Most of it [PLA] still ends up in landfill where it doesn’t biodegrade. And to top it all off, food spoils more quickly when packaged in PLA plastic. To this day, I believe PLA plastic constitutes less than one percent of the global plastic industry. Because of these reasons, some retailers in the UK have banned compostable plastics,” Jesse notes.

The company is now working on a mineral-based film called Breakdown Earth. The film comprises primarily minerals such as calcium carbonate and talc and uses half the amount of plastic commonly used to produce standard PE film. With the developmente of a new ocean polymer called Breakdown Ocean, the film is also ocean, landfill and soil biodegradable and can be burned non-toxically, leaving behind only the minerals, notes Jesse, adding that the minerals help fertilize the soil and also aid in coral reef development. 

Addressing the complex picture of sustainability
As the “plastic crisis” attracts more publicity, Jesse notes that the plastic industry has become fractured in addressing sustainability concerns, while the complexity of the situation has led to a large amount of confusion around the feasibility of a sustainable future.

“Plastic-free produce in grocery stores sounds great, for example, until you see contamination and food waste increasing. We also wouldn’t have modern medicine without tools made from plastic and clothing wouldn’t exist except for cotton and hemp, but these also have carbon footprint when scaled to the level it would need to be to replace all synthetic fabric,” he says. “For this to happen, a lot of industries must work together to offer their solution. There is no one savior for plastic waste, just like our technology alone will not solve the problem. It needs to be a joint effort and not a competition.”

“The general public typically sees an article on plastic hurting animals and that shocks them, as it should. And we live in a reactionary society where social pressure forces changes that are actually not environmentally beneficial. ‘Ban all plastic,’ they say, as they type those words on their plastic iPhone, laptop or tablet, wearing their plastic glasses, shoes and shirts,” he adds.Achieving a sustainable future is not a simple process.  Solutions to a problem this significant need to be approached carefully and logically. Recycling, reuse, reduction, bans, biochemistry, behavioral change and infrastructure all play a role.

In this way, there is a lot of greenwashing and there is no recognized standard in the plastics industry. “We have met with the World Wide Fund (WWF), Cambridge Sustainability Department and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in hopes of building key partnerships to help develop a gold standard for truly sustainable plastics,” says Jesse.

Within a gold standard program would be the use of innovative technology such as BDP, which can plug into an existing system and doesn’t require any changes to human behavior, Jesse notes. “Recycle or trash, consumers can keep doing what they’re doing and BDP will only help. There needs to be a low barrier to entry for plastic waste solutions. BDP is that biochemistry solution.”

Essentially, landfills will continue to be a reality for the plastics industry, as the material can only be recycled a few times before the polymer chains break down, Jesse notes. 

The reality is that only two out of the seven plastics made are generally accepted for recycling which begs the question, what about the other five that the recyclers will not accept? Jesse concludes that there needs to be a solution for these plastics as well as recyclable plastics that eventually get down-cycled and landfilled. BDP could be another cog in the machine on solving the problem.

By Laxmi Haigh